Dr. Thomas Lovejoy, a Yale University-trained biologist, is
Science Advisor to Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt and project
leader of the National Biological Survey, a comprehensive survey
of the nation's biological resources being undertaken by the U.S.
Department of the Interior. He has served as Assistant Secretary
of External Affairs at the Smithsonian Institution and as Vice
President for Science of the World Wildlife Fund, a group sometimes
considered callous because of its insistence that people in developing
nations abandon agriculture and hunting in favor of more "environmentally-friendly"
industries like eco-tourism.
Perhaps Lovejoy's greatest claim to fame is his development of
"debt-for-nature" swaps. Under "debt-for-nature"
swaps, environmental groups purchase foreign debt on the secondary
market at considerable discounts and then convert this debt at
its face value into the local currency to purchase large tracts
of land in the debtor nation for purposes of "environmental
protection." The problem with such swaps is that they deprive
developing nations of resources that are often essential to further
economic development. Economic stagnation and local resentment
of "Yankee imperialism" can result.
Although Lovejoy is considered by the media one of the foremost
"biodiversity" authorities, many of his assertions lack
scientific basis. For example, he has predicted that 14 to 20
percent of all currently-living species on earth will be extinct
before the year 2000, but he has offered no scientific data to
support this conclusion. According to one leading environmental
expert, Lovejoy assumes that the actual species extinction rate
is at least one thousand times greater than the observed extinction
rate.
Lovejoy's World Wildlife Fund has also been mired in controversy.
Despite its official opposition to resource development, the Fund
has received donations from both Exxon and Chevron. Additionally,
until it called for a ban on ivory imports in 1989, the Fund actively
opposed listing African elephants as "endangered." Observers
speculate that the World Wildlife Fund may have had an incentive
to oppose the listing -- Anton Rupert, one of the Fund's international
board members, is from South Africa, a hub of the ivory trade.
Selected Lovejoy Quotes
"The planet is about to break out with fever, indeed it may
already have, and we [human beings] are the disease. We should
be at war with ourselves and our lifestyles." - Quoted by
Dixy Lee Ray in her book Trashing the Planet (1990)
"A... biological transformation of the planet unequaled perhaps
since the disappearance of the dinosaur is about to occur."
- Quoted by Dr. Julian Simon and Dr. Aaron Wildavsky in the Baltimore
Sun, May 14, 1993
"Of the 3 to 10 million species now present on the earth,
at least 500,000 to 600,000 will be extinguished during the next
two decades. At least 90 percent of all species that have existed
have disappeared... the extinction rate has certainly soared,
though details mostly remain undocumented. In 1974, a gathering
of scientists concerned with the problem hazarded a guess that
the overall extinction rate among all species, whether known to
science or not, could now have reached 100 species a year."
- Quoted by Dixy Lee Ray in her book Environmental Overkill (1993)
Version Date: August 24, 1993
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